Once Upon A Time
by xflightless
Summary: Sora awakes in a mental institute and it appears everything he's experienced was just a dream. Is he the only one that remembers? Rated M for mature content in later chapters; possibly implied themes in first chapter.
1. Chapter 1

"Sora? _Sora_!"

The brunette blinked, Kairi's voice bringing him back to reality. "Kairi?"

"What? No." The owner of the voice moves to get closer -he can tell by the shuffling of her feet- and he moves to sit up. "Whoa, take it slow, kid."

"Where's Kairi? I wanna talk to her," Sora mumbles, holding a hand to his forehead.

"What would you want with her? Kairi hasn't said a word in years."

Hearing that, Sora turned to get a good look at the person who was talking. "Yuffie?"

"You know you aren't supposed to call me by my first name, Sora." She held out a small cup with a red pill inside, a glass of water in the other. "Now take your meds. We don't need another episode like yesterday happening again."

Sora blinked and his head tilted. "A w-what?" Yuffie motioned to the pill instead of answering and he frowned, grabbing the pill. He placed it on his tongue and took the glass, drinking from it. The pill went down rather smoothly and he looked up at Yuffie.

"Lunch is in an hour." She flashed him a smile before she turned, taking the glass back. She ruffled his hair and turned to leave the room, eager to help the next patient.

Sora waited until she was out of the room before he got out of bed, moving to look out the window. What he was faced with was a bunch of trees. A forest, by the looks of it – or maybe they were just woods. He pressed a hand to the glass and was surprised to feel that it was cold.

_Winter is coming_.

He pulled back and looked around his room. There were stickers of stars and spaceships on the walls and there were pictures of fairytales hanging around the room. He walked up to one of the pictures that looked handmade. It was him and a blonde girl, holding hands and smiling.

"...Namine." So she was here, too. Wherever _here_ is, that is. He tugged at the white clothes he wore, feeling strange without his usual clothes, as he walked out of the room. He glanced this way and that, making sure the hallway was clear before he took a right and headed where his feet wanted to take him.

He ended up in a sort of a rec-room. There were people he recognized, people he didn't. Cautiously, he entered the room. No one seemed to notice him and he felt a tug at his heart. Did no one recognize him? Running a hand through his spikes, he found an empty chair in the middle of the room and sat, fingers tapping against the tabletop.

"Watch it, pipsqueak. That's _my _seat," said a voice, a growl soon following from behind him.

"Pete?" Sora turned to look up at a large man that certainly looked like Pete, except he was human. He stared up at him in confusion.

"Are you gonna move or am I gonna hafta make ya move?" The Pete-look-alike asked, furry brows pulled together, large stomach sticking out.

"But I was sitting here first."

"I dun' care if you were, it's _my _seat."

"Well I'm not moving." Sora sat up straight, brows pulling together now. He had gotten the seat first and he wasn't going to be bullied out of it. He had to figure out what was going on first, anyway. He flinched when Pete raised his first, eyes shutting tightly, waiting for the punch. A yelp escaped his lips as he was yanked out of the seat and was thrown onto the floor.

"Sorry about that, Pete. Here's your chair, Pete," another familiar voice said. Before Sora had a chance to open his eyes to see whom it belonged to, he was pulled forcibly to his feet, and then he was dragged through the room, watching Pete sit in the chair, the legs struggling to support him. "Are you insane?" The voice asked before it paused. "… Of course you are. Why else would you be here?" It muttered.

Sora pushed the other off of him only to face one of the few people he had been dying to find. He jumped forward, arms wrapping around his neck. "Riku!"

"H-hey." Riku patted Sora's back in a form of comfort before he pulled back to look at him. "You know better than to mess with Pete, Sora. Remember what happened to Goofy?"

"Goofy's here too?" Sora frowned. "Wait… What happened to him?"

"Seriously kid." Riku shook his head. "You've gotta get your head out of the clouds." A soft chuckle left his lips and it brightened Sora's spirits.

"We have to find the King and find out why everyone's stuck here and acting weird," Sora said, taking a hold of Riku's covered arm and leading him back into the hallway.

"Whoa, hold on." Riku took Sora's hand off of his arm, rubbing the spot as if it had hurt. "Did you not take your medicine again?"

Sora frowned at him. "What?" He looked at Riku's sleeved arms and shook his head. "Yuffie gave them to me. Why are you wearing long sleeves? It's hot in here."

Riku's gaze narrowed slightly and he hid his arms behind his back. "Don't worry about it. I think maybe you should go back to your room for now, Sora. C'mon, before Madame Maleficent finds you out without permission again."


	2. Chapter 2

Sora sat on the edge of his bed, which he noticed was uncomfortable, and looked around his room. Riku had led him back and told him to wait until it someone came to get him for lunch. Riku didn't remember, either, just like Yuffie. Riku told Sora that Sora sometimes would hallucinate, and that his medicine helped keep the hallucinations at bay. But if all of _this _were true, then why didn't he remember any of it? He couldn't have made up his friendships with Riku and Kairi, or with Donald and Goofy – everyone. Could he have?

He placed his head between his hands, head pounding. Was everything a lie? Was he really as crazy as Riku said he was? It couldn't be possible. Sora remembered; he remembered what it was like, running through the sand on Destiny Islands, flying in the Gummi Ship for the first time, meeting Santa, fighting Organization XIII. He remembered it all. There was no way that was just a hallucination. Something had to be up. Something _had _to be altering everyone else's memories. Whatever brought them here must have done that to keep them from helping Sora from figuring it out.

"Maleficent." Riku had said her name. She was in charge of this place. Maybe she had something to do with it. Sighing softly, he looked up and jerked, seeing Roxas staring at him from the hallway. Sora's lips parted and as he stood, Roxas turned to the left and started walking. "Wait!" Sora ran out into the hallway and saw Roxas at the end of the corridor, looking back at him. Roxas waved for Sora to hurry up and he did; Sora took off, bare feet chasing after Roxas when the other turned the corner. When Sora followed, he skidded to a halt, frowning. Roxas couldn't possibly have taken off that fast. And he had been dressed in the clothing Sora had last seen him in. Slowly, Sora continued down the corridor, looking left and right, only to find closed doors or empty rooms.

When he came to the end of that corridor, he was given the choice to go left, right, or down a flight of stairs. His noise caught the scent of something delicious as he followed it down the stairs and to the right. Entering the cafeteria, Sora saw quite a few familiar faces, like Alice, who is talking to a stuffed Cheshire, and Jasmine, who is pushing her food around, which of both sat together, and Belle who sat alone with a book in one hand, lips moving and mumbling something he couldn't make out. This tugged at his heart. He didn't like seeing his friends like this. He looked around again and a small smile found his lips when his gaze landed on a petite blonde, sitting at the back of the cafeteria, near one of the windows. He snaked through the tables and chairs to get to her, sliding into the seat across from her.

"Namine?"

She jumped when she heard her name, blue eyes wide and flickering to Sora. She blinked, glancing off to the side to see if anyone had come with him before she looked at him. "What are you doing here?" She asked, voice small but warm. Hopeful.

"I'm… Well, I was supposed to wait for someone to bring me to lunch," he replied before pausing. "…Today has been a really weird day." He looked over at Namine and it looked as if she were trying to figure out which words she wanted to use for whatever it was she was thinking.

"Do you remember what happened yesterday?" She asked after a moment, gaze locked on his. Sora shook his head.

"But everyone keeps reminding me." He didn't even remember falling asleep. Namine pressed her lips together and looked off to the side, glancing outside the window to look at the trees.

"I don't remember either." She propped her elbow onto the table and rested her chin in her hand. "I thought this was a dream."

"…Are you saying you remember everything that happened too?" Sora asked. "The Organization? Ansem? The different worlds?" It all came out rushed, the excitement of someone remembering everything he did too getting the best of him. "I'm not crazy, right?"

Namine turned to look at him and a soft smile formed at her lips. "You're not crazy. I do remember. I just…" She sighed. "…It's weird. It's as if someone has toyed with our memories."

"Do you know anyone else who can do that besides you?" Sora asked. Namine shook her head with a frown. "I saw Roxas. He was outside my room. But he took off before I could ask him anything."

Namine blinked slowly. "You… You saw Roxas?"

"Well… Yeah. Haven't you?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Roxas isn't here. I looked for him, but..." She shrugged.

"Are you sure you haven't seen Roxas?" Sora asked once more, something burning in the pit of his stomach. It was an unfamiliar feeling. However, he didn't have time to dwell on it as Namine spoke up.

"I'm positive, Sora. I've looked..." She pressed her lips together. "You and I, we've been here only a day. What we remember yesterday is what _really_ happened." She raised a hand to gently wave it to the side, pointing to everyone in the cafeteria. "What they don't remember. But they are here... It had to have happened." She looked back at Sora, gaze something he couldn't make out. "We can't have imagined this if we remember everything the exact same way, can we?"

Sora kept quiet, blue eyes gazing over the painfully familiar faces in the room before looking at the one who understood what he was currently going through before he shook his head. "Riku said Maleficent was in charge. Do you think she's behind this or...? Or this was just dumb luck and something put her in charge?"

Namine shrugged lightly. "I haven't seen her anywhere since I woke up this morning." Namine reached over the table to take Sora's hands in hers, giving them a squeeze. "We'll get everyone back, Sora. You just have to stay strong." She offered him a reassuring smile and his lips twitched up into a grin, giving a light nod.

"You're right," he said, taking her hands in his, returning the squeeze. "We're gonna do this together and we'll fix whatever's going on."

"What's going on here, Namine? And how come we're the only ones who can remember?"

Namine sighed and shook her head. "I wish I knew." She looked outside, head tilting slightly for a moment before looking back at Sora with a light grin. "Let's go for a walk."


End file.
